Power fault sparks compo call

Irate residents want Vector to pay up after voltage spike fries belongings worth tens of thousands of dollars

Angry residents in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland want Vector to pay up after a power fault that caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage in their homes.

They say the lines company didn’t seem to be taking any responsibility and was refusing to cover thousands of dollars in insurance excess and other costs.

For Matt Smith and his wife Louise McKenzie-Smith, their power nightmare began when they arrived home from work this month to find four Vector trucks parked across the street, with a crew working on a transformer box opposite their Leslie Ave home. “A Vector tech said we were getting 400 volts down our line due to a transformer fault that day, when we were at work. It blew about $7000 worth of stuff on our property alone,” Smith told the Herald.

Vector says the fault was technically not a surge but rather involved “abnormal voltage” where some customers received higher than usual voltage and others lower.

Ten houses were hit, said another Leslie Ave resident, Allison StaffordBush, who has co-ordinated efforts to get compensation.

In the Smiths’ case, an automatic garage door, a dishwasher, microwave, heated towel rail and an extraction fan system were among the electronics that got fried.

Vector told the couple to make a claim with their insurance company. They did, and the early indications are that the insurance company will pay out.

However, the couple are left with a double-whammy of excess $250 for their home policy (which their garage door falls under) plus another $500 for contents (which covered damaged appliances).

They will also lose a $250 noclaims bonus for each policy — meaning Vector’s transformer bungle could cost them $1000.

They have also had to pay for an electrician to check that everything is safe in their home, which was completely rewired in a renovation only months ago.

Other homes in the street are in a similar position.

In one house, every appliance in a new kitchen was wrecked, another resident has said.

Stafford-Bush says her fridge and home alarm are repairable, but she is still waiting for an assessment on the motor for her home’s electric gate, which she is expecting will be a major bill.

One neighbour had their

It blew about $7000 worth of stuff on our property alone. Matt Smith Kingsland resident

electronically controlled ventilation system, alarm, ducted gas heating system, oven extractor fan, and Sonos speaker system wrecked. Another had their hot-water cylinder knocked out. One household had their pool pump system fried.

One resident noticed their lights flashing on and off on the morning of the fault and contacted Vector. She was told to turn off power at the mains and her home subsequently avoided any damage.

Stafford-Bush says turning off power was not an option for most residents, however, because they were at work.

She said she was disappointed at

Vector’s initial reaction, which she described as “push-back”. However, she says the lines company’s latest communication has been more constructive and she remains optimistic it will do the right thing and “cover costs and excess”.

“That would be the ideal outcome”. Will Vector have to come to the party?

Electricity is covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act. The law says the supply of electricity must be of acceptable quality, Consumer head of research Jessica Wilson says.

“When it’s not — for example, when a fault causes a power surge that damages your appliances and those of your neighbours — you’re likely to have grounds to seek compensation from your retailer,” she said.

Does that mean the Leslie Rd families now have go through another round of phone calls and emails, this time to their power retailers? Not according to Wilson.

“We think Vector should have informed the families they could take the matter to Utilities Disputes,” she says.

“Utilities Disputes can deal with the complaint, without the families going back to their retailers,” she said.

Utilities Disputes is a free, independent service run by the office of the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner.

“In one case heard by Utilities Disputes last year, a customer got a $5079 payment after a power surge caused damage to household appliances,” Wilson says.

It was also wrong to send the Leslie Ave families to grapple with their insurance companies, the Consumer research head says.

“If there’s a breach of the Consumer Guarantees Act, the retailers are liable. You don’t have to claim on your insurance. Retailers can seek costs back from the lines company where the latter has caused or contributed to the breach.”

Vector communications manager Elissa Downey told the Herald the company had been in contact with “all affected customers to work through next steps” and was “working with insurance companies where appropriate to repair or replace damaged appliances”.

She said that in the Leslie Ave incident, “a distribution transformer developed an internal fault that meant its neutral connection broke and resulted in abnormal supply voltages to about 30 customers”.

Downey said the incident wasn’t a power surge.

“This type of failure is very rare. This meant some households connected to the transformer experienced low supply voltage, and some experienced high supply voltage.

“This lasted for approximately one hour, until Vector’s technician arrived at the location and isolated the transformer.”